Kino-Flo Diva 200 or 400?

puredrifting

puredrifting

Major Contributor
Hi all:

In my quest to create a small, light, portable light kit, I am trying to decide between the Kino Diva 200 or the 400. The 200 is just the right size and weight. For mostly shooting interviews, if I buy the LightTools cloth grid, am I going to be happy with the Diva 200, coming from using a medium Chimera with an Arri 650? I have rented and used the Diva 400 and I am happy with the quality of light from it but what about the 200?

The 400 in a case is really too big.

Opinions?

Dan
 
I have personally compared the output of a Arri 650W w/ Small Chimera to the output of the Diva Lite 200 and the Diva Lite is much brighter, at least 50% brighter. Shooting a fresnel into a softbox is REALLY inefficient. The most efficient method is to get a fixture that puts the lamp INSIDE the softbox, instead of shooting "into" the softbox. It has been said that a 500W lamp on a Photoflex Starlite is equivalent to a 1K Arrilite shooting into a softbox. I can not verify that, because I haven't tried it. But, I can tell you that a 500W lamp in a Photoflex Starlite is 1.5x to 2x brighter than a Diva Lite 200. THAT is IMPRESSIVE! If for some reason you're bothered by the large mogul-base lamps used by the Starlite (even though they are plenty durable for travel), then you might consider the Dedolight version (DLH1000S) that uses the smaller lamps. It's a whole lot more expensive, though.

Anyways, I think you could get a Photoflex Starlite with the E27 adapter and 250W lamp with softbox and fabric eggcrate and get a vastly superior quality of light than a Diva for a lot less money. My opinion, informed by experience, is that 55W biax fluorescent units should not be used for professional video production. They are not up to the task. The color reproduction is dreadful compared to tungsten lights. They are big, heavy, and put out a awful light pink tinted hue with hard, ugly shadows. Save your money. Get a better designed tungsten unit over the fluorescent any day. I guarantee you will be disappointed with the flo in time.
 
While I do admit nothing equals a softbox light, and agree wholeheartedly in wells prefference for Photoflex starlights, I had great experiences with Lowell Caselights. I also love kino-flo´s regular arsenal, so I guess the Divas must be also pretty hot. I´d take the 400s because of a personal taste: I like to let backgrounds fall dark, and I can´t do this in brighter places unless I have a powerful source. Still, you´re right that for an interview-only kit, the 200 make a lot of sense. Was that remotely helpful? Ah, well nevermind. The most basic choice humanity ever had to make, power/drawbacks = efficiency.
 
I would recommend getting the diva 400. As taubkin mentioned ... sometimes, you will need more punch and you will regret not having the option to do so. Plus, the suitcase that the 400 comes in isn't really that big. Plus, the 400 only takes 2 amps of power. However, I think that it's ultimately up to you -- only you know how much space and light you need. I hope that this was helpful.
 
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